Trip to Tahiti

Hi! I'm planning a trip to Tahiti this fall to celebrate my 50th Birthday. Just my cousin and me. We are planning two weeks, and the main object is relaxation, tiki sightseeing, snorkeling, scuba, swimming and more relaxation/pool/umbrella drinks. I'm looking for advice/input from any TCers who have been there recently...where to go/stay, when is the best time to visit. Must see places/nearby islands. I prefer a hut on the beach to a fancy hotel. Not big on nightlife or partying. Love nature. I've seen posts from 2003, looking for updated info and cheapest way to go. Thanks! Rev. Tiki

Hey Rev, check out Vegas vic's podcast #9 He goes into some details of his trip to Tahiti during that episode and gives out some pretty solid tips.
Here is the thread:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=14834&forum=11&start=30

Have fun and save trip.

Chongolio

If you have time & money to do it, the Aranui is an excellent way to visit the islands (the marquesas mostly). It was a fantastic trip I'll never forget.
This is the real tiki cruise.
http://aranui.com/

My wife and I went IN 1998 and stayed in Moorea. It's the island about 45 minutes by ferry from Tahiti. It was incredible. There is a place called Tiki village there that has a great dinner and show.The Tiki village has a webpage.Also if you go seek out Lily Moorea the local artist. She is a real character. I hope this helps.

Thanks for the info...all very helpful, indeed!

in 2000 I went to Tahiti and Moorea. I would go back to Tahiti long enough to land in the airport, get on a boat and leave again. Tahiti was wau overrated in my book. Don't get me wrong, it had some cool and beautiful places to see. We took a jeep excursion thru the mountains which was cool. There is also a downtown marketplace area with shopping, produce and fish market that is worth seeing. In Tahiti, get where you need to go by "Le Truck". It was like $1 to ride and it takes you everywhere.

Now Moorea was what it was all about. Heaven on earth. Most wonderful place I had ever been. Water, sky, beach...all beautiful. You can fly their from Tahiti in about 15 minutes, but its a short scary ass ride. I liked the big ferry boat better. On moorea, rent a car for a day and go around the whole island. Its basically one road that circles the outside. Cook's Bay was incredible. Belvedere Point is near cooks bay. Most of the hotels are on the northside of the Island. All except the Sofitel, which is closer to the ferry dock. Temae Public beach was worth checking out. Their is a waterfall on the island, but ask a local if it has water at that time before you go. Sometimes its dry.
Just remember, everything is expensive, but the view makes up for it.

Have fun man

Hi Rev. Tiki, if you're passing through Moorea you can stop by at my brother in law's place at Vaianae, Haapiti - MOOREA. He would be pleased to help you out on your sight-seeing & places to visit. Send me an email for his contact.

VAY

Thanks, Erich and Vainui! I appreciate the valuable insight. We will definitely seek the outer island adventures. Right now, we're having a hard time putting together enuf vacation time in 2005 and may have to postpone till '06! We want to go for at least two weeks. Vainui, I will drop you a PM when plans are final to get your Bro's address.

In the meantime...#$%& Tahiti, we're going to Hukilau!!!
Mahalo, Rev. Tiki

In the words of Mad Max in the Thunderdome movie "If you want to get out of here? You need to come to me" As stated above the Aranui is a great cruise to the Marquesas. More tiki carvers there than anywhere else in Tahiti. Just remember its way more laid back than Hawaii and much slower. There is a great board http://www.tahiti-explorer.com which can answer a ton of your questions.

Hey Rev. Tiki, thanks for bringing this thread up again.

A motorcycle accident gave an unfortunate delay to my honeymoon with my new wife and we are now looking at a possible trip to Tahiti in the summer or fall of 2006. So like you, I also have some questions about Tahiti. It seems like Hawaii is pretty well covered on this board, but I don't think I'm rehashing old questions and information here.

First off the features that I'm looking for are (yes, I’m a geek, I make lists):

1. About a two-week vacation
2. Probably two locations
3. Prefer not to go to the heavily touristed areas (like Papeete, Bora Bora, etc.)
4. Looking to stretch my thin American dollar as much as possible, so maybe only a few nights in an on-the-water bungalow, but then the rest of the time in more affordable establishments.
5. Would like to choose one island which has snorkeling close to beaches with reefs that we can swim out to
6. Also would like to find an area with some archaeological history so that we can explore the original culture and Tikis

In searching around on the web a bit I found the following information which also raises some questions:
A. As an alternative to the large hotel chains, it seems there are quite a number of "family pension" or “guesthouse” places. These appear to be mom and pop type bed and breakfasts and bungalow style. Has anyone here on the board stayed at one of these places? http://www.haere-mai.pf/index.php?page=accueil&lg=en
B. For the diving part of the trip I was thinking of either Manihi or Tikehau (“In fact the density of the fish in the lagoon is so high that Jacques Cousteau's research group declared that Tikehau's lagoon contained the highest concentration of fish in all of the Tuamotu atolls”), and for the archeological leg (try saying that when you’re drunk), I was thinking of Nuku Hiva. Has anyone visited these islands? http://www.thetahititraveler.com/maps/fpoly.asp
C. Has anyone gone to Fiji? I haven’t really looked much yet, but on first look it seems less expensive.

Virani - I saw your link to Aranui. I thought that was a pretty good idea, but I'm worried that you really don't get enough time in each of the ports to get around and explore. Would you mind giving us a bit more detail on how your trip was?

Pacific Andy - thanks for the tip about http://www.thetahititraveler.com/forum/list.asp?fid=12 (I think that’s the BB you intended). It has been somewhat useful, however I'm a bit suspicious that there are absolutely no critical responses and so many of the questions are unanswered. This would lead me to believe that this board is moderated and edited by some kind of BBB "tourism council".

I still have to listen to Vegas Vic’s podcast. Don’t know what info is on it…

Also, if there are any other TCers who have the same interests, let me know. Perhaps we could work group rates at some of the hotels.

Sorry for the long post and many questions, but I’ll update everyone on how this “vacation search” goes.

And if you want to hear how our life here in South Korea is going, my wife keeps a blog at http://rulebrittaniea.org . Yes, I prefer to be anonymous. I can’t believe she posts this stuff. I hope my mom doesn’t find it.

Thanks!
Kilikopela

2 weeks won't be enough if you want to explore lots of islands. Especially if you want to enjoy and rest at the most wonderfful place in the world.
I stayed at a guesthouse in Tahiti (Relais Fenua) for 3 days. It was great, not very far from Papeete, but still not in the city. Renting a car is a really good way to get to know Tahiti.
Moorea is only a 10 minutes flight. You must do it if you stay in tahiti, at least for a day.
The Marquesas was my goal when I came to polynesia, and the Aranui is the best way to enjoy the islands when you can't spend weeks of flights, boat, hotels...
For 10 days, we really get to know the islands, as for exemple, we got to 3 differents harbours in Nuku Hiva, so 3 villages.
In Fatu Hiva, we hiked the all day from Umua to Hanavave, the 2 island villages, that took us the all day, but we crossed the island, it was wonderful. And there is no airport in Fatu Hiva, so you'll need a boat to get there, a guide to take you to marae, tikis...
We really had the best time in the world, but the Aranui is not about diving, smimming, and staying at the beach. We walked a lot all day, got up early, had a lot of fun, drunk a lot of Hinano, played the ukulele with the sailors, the villagers...
It's a one of a kind experience, but don't do it if you prefer diving, enjoying the beaches...then go to the Tuamotu islands.
You'll love it anyway....

by the way, I did a lot of archelogy temples in the Marquesas. Everyday in the 10 days trip, we went to see tikis hidden in the bushes, petroglyphs...in Nuku hiva, Hiva Oa, Ua Huka...lots of places to explore.

The website is http://www.tahitiexplorer.com
A very active web board. - The Haere Mai site is good for pensions and much smaller hotels. You will not find any Overwater bungalows at these places. Most they are homes or small motel type of accomodations about a two star rating. They are cheaper and can offer you a great experience since you will interact with the locals more. The Aranui cruise is great, you can also check out some special via Air Tahiti Nui
at http://www.airtahitinui.com. Costco has some great prices as well.

If you go to Moorea, check in at the Bali Hai Hotel at cocktail time. In the 50s, these three California boys (the BaliHai Boys) bought the land hoping to run a sugar planation (but they failed) and turned it into a hotel with the lovely overwater bungalows... two of the original boys are still living and used to come out to the bar at cocktail hours and spin tales about the last 50 years on Moorea.

Supposedly there are two great tikis on Moorea - one at the Bali Hai and the other in a private historic plantation (the current owner supposedly opens her house to tours - tho I waited forever with a bunch of eager tourists and she never materialzed to open the gate). If memory serves, one was stolen years back. They managed to locate it and bring it back. Big fiasco - great story.

Locals are very friendly except to the French. The Tiki Village is fun. There is a bar not too far away where the locals hang out and sing traditional songs. Reserve for dinner at the Te Honu Iti and ask for a table over the water or the Linareva floating restaurant. Both expensive but worth it. They'll pick you up for free if your hotel is far away.

Very fun to rent bikes but you have to be pretty healthy to use it as your only mode of transport. There's a beautiful public white sand beach where you can go topless is you want to. The sun is rougher than it looks, so be generous with the sunscreen.

Go shark diving!! I did. Amazing.

Skip Tahiti. Didn't make it to Bora Bora but I hear its even better than Moorea (which is pretty great)

We’re on our one week countdown! 7 days on Huahine at pension Fare Maeva, 4 days on Rangiroa on an OW bungalow at Kia Ora, and 8 days on the Aranui! We ended up using Hideaway Holidays to coordinate our flights, reservations, and purchases. Their total price was the same as my estimate if I’d made the reservations myself, so I think it’s a good deal.

Now I can make up the honeymoon trip for my wife since I ruined last year’s with my m/c accident. I think she’s happy with it! My wife’s blog is at http://rulebrittaniea.org/.

Thanks for the advice, everyone!
Kilikopela

that's just an excellent planning. You'll have the best days of the Aranui, you will see Rangiroa, the nicest lagoon, and beach ever...that is just the perfect combination.
lucky lucky.

I thought that the Bali Hai Hotel was torn down and it is gone? Anyone knows? Then one I stayed at in the 90's is gone for sure is there another one?

The bali Hai still exist, but not as the original one.
I think they rebuilt it on their previous location. I've seen it 2 years ago.

The Bali Hai is gone and now is the Pearl Resort On Moorea
They still have a club Bali Hai in Cooks bay. You can go around sun down and one of the original Bali Hai Boys still is there and will tell great stories. Everymans wish. Also for the person going to Huahine. You will love it. The guy running the pension your staying at is Etienne and his brother Daniel. Very cool laid back guys. Its very low key place nothing high end but fun

Brittanie here, Kilikopela's vahine, and I just thought since my husband has done such a great job plugging my website here lately I'd let you know that I've posted pics of our recent trip. See our souvenirs here.

It was wonderful, and so much happened in three weeks that it's impossible to sum up in a few sentences, but I'll say this — the absolute best service we got was while staying at the Pension Fare Maeva. After seven days there, we felt like we were staying with friends instead of strangers. The aboslute worst service we got was at the $600-a-night over-water bungalow. We even got sick after eating the buffet there. It's nice for the ammenities but sometimes you don't get what you pay for.

The Aranui was really great — it's not in my nature to do "cattle herd" style tours with 200 other people, but there is simply no other way to see so much of the Marquesas for that little money in that short of time. The great thing about the Aranui is that their tour guides are pretty knowledgeable, and many of them are locals.

You can also read about our adventures in these posts.

Maruru,
Brit

Did you get a chance to meet Etienne or Daniel in Huahine?

Is the Island of Tahiti that bad or are the others just that much more natural and serene?

Tahiti is actually very cool. The town of Papeete is very French but with Tahitian feel. A little dirty but it cool. Good food. If you travel out past the town the scenary is really great. The reason most people only stay for a night is because the other island really give you the island feel. Its all pretty cool.